[RIP: John Marshall Dean John Corkery]

This week, I attended the memorial service for John Corkery, former Dean of The John Marshall Law School.

Together with those on the faculty who became my colleagues, John hired me for my first tenure-track position. That single decision changed the trajectory of my career.

As a young scholar, being offered a first academic home matters enormously. John understood that. He also went further. While I was still pre-tenure, he requested I be the Director of the school’s flagship intellectual property center, an institution that was then nearly 80 years old and globally respected. I strove daily to be a good steward of his trust.

John made the personal effort to show up, to attend programs, to support the work, and to signal publicly that junior faculty and their ideas mattered. Leadership, for him, was consistent and personal. I have been blessed to have good deans like him all through my career.

It was great reconnecting with former colleagues, some of whom, like me, had since left Chicago and returned this week to honor John together with his family. That reunion spoke volumes about the reach of his influence and the community he helped build. Many of us bear similar stories, often unspoken, to leaders who opened doors at precisely the moment it mattered most.

John lived a life well. Rest in peace, Dean Corkery. Rest in peace, John.